Go into almost any marina and you can spot the liveaboards by the bikes tied to the gauard rails, the extra fuel cans on deck and the general detritus but nothing says serious sailor as much as solar panels and wind generators. I've had boats with both in the past and when properly sized and correctly wired they do a marvelous job at running the fridge and keeping the batteries charged. However some boats do not lend themselves to mounting solar panels and wind generators either because there is nowhere suitable to permanently mount such appendages or even for the aesthetic reasons of spoiling the lines of the boat.
Windpax is a small enterprize which has been raising money through a kickstarter programme to manufacture market and a range of collapsible vertical wind turbines. The website is a little skant right now but it seems that they are developing three units initially of differing sizes. The middle size is called the Breeze and has a stated output of 100 watts and folds up to a compact 22 by 5 inches. Although they are not shipping units yet they can be preordered at what seems like a very reasonable $285 with an additional $40 for a clamp on bracket. There is a no mention of boating on the site but I do think that they have an untapped market and whilst the turbine may not charge a huge battery bank I do think the Breeze could be a good choice for a small pocket cruiser with modest power consumption.
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